Giroud flicked the ball in with his heel after Alexis Sanchez’s cross fell behind him and manager Arsene Wenger immediately placed it in the top five goals he had witnessed in 20 years as Arsenal manager.
“He transformed that goal into art and art causes surprise because of the beauty of the movement and efficiency of the movement,” said Wenger.
“You cannot work that in training. It’s just a reflex. It was an exceptional goal at the end of a team movement.
That will be remembered as a goal nobody will forget. Strikers are remembered for two or three goals and Olivier Giroud will be remembered for that goal forever. He brings the unexpected and we all come to football for the unexpected.
“I’ve been spoiled in my career, I’ve had many great players and great strikers and that is certainly in the top five.
“What was in my top five? Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry scored some special goals. Bergkamp at Leicester and Newcastle, Henry against Real Madrid and Liverpool. Then there was Nwankwo Kanu at Chelsea.
“But maybe it’s not acknowledged enough – Olivier scores important goals. He scored at Manchester United with a special header, scored in 86 min against West Brom. He scores goals with weight. And at 0-0 we needed a start.”
Palace manager Sam Allardyce, who last week also fell foul of Watford mascot Harry the Hornet while also licking his wounds from a newspaper ‘sting’, admitted his players were not good enough offensively and is more focused on tomorrow’s relegation six-pointer against Swansea.
He called for heads to roll at the Premier League for the way his team have been put at a huge disadvantage by the fixture list.
“Arsenal were much better than us,” he said. “We needed to play our best and certainly first half we didn’t play anywhere near what I needed. But it is beating teams in the bottom half of the table that will get us to safety.
“And we’re thin on the ground for Swansea. Why can’t we play Wednesday? I don’t know who does the fixtures but he really needs sacking. Swansea have 24 hours on us.
“You want a fair crack at it with so much at stake. I won’t bore you with the science but the fatigued players don’t have time to recover 100 per cent.”
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